Pulling the Thread
by imsavannah
Summary: Spencer and Toby 5x20 speculation. What will happen if Toby catches Spencer breaking the law when they are not on good terms as it is?


It was a beyond boring Saturday night for the Rosewood Police Department. That was the thing about Rosewood. It was either an absolutely crazy night or an extremely boring one. There was no in between. Toby sat in his cop car patrolling Rosewood's main street supposedly looking for speeders or reckless teenagers or anything illegal, basically. However, instead, he was lost in thought, the events of the morning haunting his mind. When had he and Spencer become strangers? He knew, in part, it was his doing since he had been consciously putting more and more distance in between them. It's not that he didn't want to be with her; it was that he physically couldn't. He knew that she would end up asking questions that he wasn't allowed to answer, she would get mad, and then we would get mad. It was just one disastrous cycle that he didn't know how to break.

He jumped when the walkie-talkie on his shoulder jolted to life, his buddy and fellow officer, Chris, speaking to him. "Cavanaugh, you there?"

He cleared his throat and pressed the button on the side of the device. "Yes. I'm stationed at Main Street. What's up?"

"The alarms went off at Hollis College. They have a history of a faulty alarm system, but we need to scope the area. I'm headed to the West Wing. You head to the East Wing and check it out."

"On my way."

He drove to the East Wing of Hollis College as he was directed and didn't see anyone around the building. He was heading behind the building to park and get out to take a look when he noticed a tan truck similar to his own parked at the gas station across the street. It was around ten o'clock at night, which met all gas stations were closed.

He drove over to the station and saw someone leaning against the side of the car dressed in black. Once he got closer he realized he knew the person standing there all too well.

"Spencer," Toby exclaimed as he climbed out of the car and made his way towards her. "What the hell?"

She jumped, visibly startled as her mind was elsewhere before he had approached her. "Toby…what are you even doing here?" She asked, her voice gave way to obvious irritation.

"The question is what are you doing here? We got a call that there was a break in at Hollis College. Please tell me that wasn't you."

She swallowed, avoiding his disappointed expression. It was like he already knew the answer to that question before he even asked it. "Well, if I told you that I'd be lying."

"Spencer, why?"

"Because I need to get into college."

"What are you talking about?" He replied, clearly confused. "You already got into college."

"Not to anywhere I actually want to go. If you've been around at all recently, then you'd know that."

Her comment hit him like a punch in the gut. He actually felt it. "Okay, so breaking into Hollis would help how?"

"Jonny said that he would hook me up with his contact from Oxford if I helped him borrow some paintings from Hollis."

"So that's what's in this trunk," Toby replied, shining his flashlight into the trunk beside them. "And when you say borrow you mean steal, right? So where is he?"

"I don't know. We both ran when we heard the sirens and I ran back to the car. I don't know where he went."

"Classic. Look, I get panicking because you didn't get into the right school yet, but why would you trust this guy? He didn't go to college, he's unemployed, and he lives in your barn. I bet you he has absolutely no connections to Oxford whatsoever."

"Desperate people do desperate things, Toby. And maybe I shouldn't have trusted him so easily, but he was there for me. Let's not forget that you cancelled on me today. Again. And Jonny was there to listen to me and just be there for me when you haven't been. I'm not sorry for saying that it's been kind of nice having someone to make me laugh and forget about everything else for one freaking second."

"I'm sorry I haven't been able to be that person for you. But things have changed and we've-"

Before Toby could finish, Chris's voice was heard from his side once again. "The fire department confirmed it isn't a faulty alarm system. We got a break in on our hands."

Toby took in a breath and looked over at Spencer. She returned his look with tears in her eyes. He would never turn Spencer in, but this was getting to be too much.

"What am I supposed to do now, Spence? You put me in these positions and I just don't know how to handle them. I'm probably going to get suspended for covering for you or worse…I can't do it anymore."

"I'm sorry I'm such a burden in your life," she let out shakily, lifting a hand up to wipe a stray tear from her eye. "So what are you going to do, now? Arrest me?" She asked, folding her arms across her chest.

"No, Spencer, okay, I'm not going to arrest you. But you should get out of here. I think we could use a little breathing room between us and I have to take care of this right now."

"I've seen you all of two times the past couple of weeks. I don't think space is the problem here. I told you I need you to be around more." As much as this was true, it was so hard for her to say it aloud. Her parents had always raised her to be a strong person who didn't need anyone. But it wasn't true. She had learned that no matter how strong you are, or how strong you seem to be, everybody needs somebody. And her somebody was Toby.

He shook his head. "I can't be around you when there's certain things I know that I can't tell you…it's too hard."

She sniffled and looked away, half because she wanted to avoid his eyes and half because she didn't want him to see how upset hers looked.

After a moment of silence so silent that you could hear a pin drop, Toby said the words that seemed to have been their fate ever since they had gotten into the fight about the knife a couple of weeks ago. "Maybe our relationship just needs a break."

She snapped her eyes back towards his instantly. She couldn't deny that the thought of her and Toby breaking up had been on her mind recently, but she never thought that it would actually happen. She hesitated, "Is that…is that what you want?"

"I don't see any other solution. Things have changed…and if we just keep acting like they haven't, we'll just keep hurting each other." He was sure he would never forget the hurt look in her eyes, and he couldn't see, but he just knew that his held a similar emotion behind them.

"I…I'm…I don't-," She stammered, and stopped when they both heard sirens in the distance, coming their way.

He swallowed. "The car's not yours. I'll handle it. Go."

She eyed him blankly, wanting to say something, anything, to him, but incapable of finding the words.

"Walk away, Spencer," Toby said firmly, but with a fit of emotion behind it. "Just walk away."

She wearily looked back at him before continuing to walk away cautiously. As Toby watched her go, he felt tears begin to well up his eyes. It was only a break, right?

* * *

**Ahhh so I'm so worried/excited about the episode on Tuesday because SOMETHING is going down with Spoby. I love drama so I'm really excited for the episode, but at the same time a little nervous. I'm not sure what Jonny and Spencer do that's illegal or why so I just made something up. Review it if you can cause I'd love to hear what you think and what your take on their current situation is! **


End file.
